


Immature Fucknugget

by 7r33h0u53r3fu633



Category: Buzzfeed Unsolved (Web Series), Game Grumps
Genre: Daddy Play, M/M, Non-Sexual Age Play, Spanking
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-01-19
Updated: 2019-01-19
Packaged: 2019-10-12 12:36:09
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 10,715
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17467661
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/7r33h0u53r3fu633/pseuds/7r33h0u53r3fu633
Summary: Ryan, Shane, Arin, and Dan collaborate.





	Immature Fucknugget

**Author's Note:**

> A million thank yous to my beta! You're a goddamn angel!

"This is going to be a weird fucking crossover," said Arin, shifting from foot to foot, his hands in his pockets. He was antsy, although it would be embarrassing to admit it.

"It'll be fun," Dan said, although he didn't sound convinced. He had tied his hair back, and was even wearing his big stompy boots. 

Admittedly, the two of them were going to be traipsing through some old asylum, so big stompy boots were probably a good idea. You wanted to protect your feet, all things considered. 

It was a neat idea - there was a horror movie being made that was set in an old, abandoned asylum, and it was close enough to Glendale that they could do a crossover. A tie in video game too, which was kind of perfect. Arin had contacted the two of them about it, said they could each use the ratings boost. Anyway, they were, all four of them, as set of young-ish nerdy dudes who made pop culture references and made videos on the internet. 

Dan seemed faintly spooked, but then again, Dan was always spooked by... spooky stuff. The guy went for "flight" when it came to "fight or flight," whereas Arin was straight to "fight."

It wasn't as if ghosts were real, but... still. 

"You'd think that two guys with this much experience wouldn't keep us waiting so long," Dan groused, although there wasn't much grouse behind it. 

"They're probably stuck in traffic," said Arin, then; "are you gonna be okay?"

Dan shot Arin a slightly nervous look, although he was still smiling. "I should be fine," he told Arin. "Just... y'know, antsy."

"You sure?" Arin put a hand on the back of Dan's neck, and he gave it a squeeze. 

Dan sighed, leaning into. His eyes fluttered closed, and he licked his lips. 

It was taking effort for Arin not to grin. It was almost disgustingly easy to send Dan into some kind of headspace - the guy was so pent up that even a certain look could send him spiraling down into headspace, like a quarter in one of those donation bowls you saw at zoos or malls. 

"I don't like scary stuff," Dan said, "but I know it'll boost ratings for us. I know people like watching us scream and stuff like that."

"It probably won't be that scary," Arin assured Dan. "The scariest shit will probably be, like, how much gross dust and whatnot that we're breathing in."

Dan made a face, his nose wrinkling. "Is that supposed to calm me down?"

"Look at it this way," Arin said cheerfully. "If you're worried about breathing in asbestos or cockroach jizz, you won't be worrying about ghosts, right?"

"I guess that's _one_ way to look at it," said Dan, although he looked doubtful. 

Arin moved his hand to Dan's ponytail, and he tugged it. Dan's hair was wiry and thick against his fingers, and Dan went a little boneless, his eyes fluttering closed. "Do you trust me?" Arin was speaking directly into Dan's ear.

"I do," Dan said quietly.

"Will you trust me to keep you safe?" Arin pressed his forehead into Dan's temple, and Dan's hair was ticklish against his face. Some of it was already springing free from the ponytail - Dan would probably have to redo it before they went on camera, if he wanted it to stay attached. 

"I do," Dan repeated. "I'm sorry, I don't mean to be so -"

"Dan, it's fine," Arin said, and he gave Dan a quick kiss on the cheek.

Dan sighed, leaning into it, and then he straightened up. "They're coming towards us - I can see the car."

"You excited?" Arin stepped back, giving Dan a chance to compose himself. It wasn't as if he was embarrassed about the two of them being an item or anything - far from it! Most of the people of YouTube knew that they were a thing. They didn't have to know what kind of thing, but, well, that wasn't anyone's business. 

"Oh yeah," said Dan, and he grinned at Arin. "They're good people."

The car stopped in front of them, crammed with people and camera equipment, and Arin put on his best "meeting new people" smile, stepping forward. 

It was time to get this show on the road. 

* * *

Shane and Ryan (and Devon, and TJ, and Mark) all turned out to be very lovely people. They were also ridiculously practiced at this - they unloaded with ease, not even tripping up over the weirdness of the old asylum, which leered down at them like a malevolent force. It was surreal, to be shaking hands and exchanging pleasantries, while the buildings broken windows glowered at them.

"So," said Shane, and he rubbed his hands together, looking like he meant business. "You guys ready for a whole lot of nothing?"

Shane was cute, in a stretched out, taffy machine accident at a vital age sort of way. He reminded Arin of Dan, albeit with less hair. 

"You sure it'll be nothing?" Dan looked faintly nervous, and he exchanged looks with Ryan. The two of them seemed to have already formed some kind of rapport. 

Arin was already getting a clue as to how this was going to go - Shane and Arin, the two skeptics, with Ryan and Dan, the two believers. Twice as much jumping at shadows, twice as much snarky commentary. 

There were, for sure, worse things. And they'd promote the game, and the fans would eat it up. There might even be new fan art!

"It's always nothing in these places," Shane said, in a resigned tone of voice. "Sometimes there'll be bats, or one time we found a salamander -"

"That wasn't in one of these places," Ryan interrupted. "That was when we were hunting a 'Squatch."

"That, uh... that doesn't sound as G rated as it could be," said Dan, and he was snickering, as the two of them (trailed by cameras) made their way towards the entrance of the old asylum. 

"We're not G rated," Shane countered. "We swear all the time."

"Yeah, but we don't go into, like, our masturbation habits and shit like that," said Ryan, and he was giggling, just a bit, his hand over his mouth. 

Arin raised an eyebrow, giving Ryan a Look. 

He couldn't help it - something about the Ghoul Boys was setting off some kind of instinct in the back of his head. He wanted to... what did he want to do? He honestly wasn't sure, but it was making his palms itch. Arin tried not to be too much of the stereotypical "Daddy dom," treating everyone around him like they were part of his dynamic. Sometimes, though, certain things seemed to set him off. Fucked if he knew what it was that did it, but... well, it was being done. 

Oh, but was it being done. 

"Arin?" Shane was frowning at him, looking faintly concerned. "Are you okay?" 

"Yeah, sorry," said Arin, and he grinned, sheepish. "Sorry. Spaced out."

"It's all good," Dan said cheerfully. "He does that sometimes."

Arin snorted, elbowing Dan in the ribs.

Dan snickered, and elbowed him back. 

"We can say that you're communing with the spirits," Shane said. "Really sell 'em on it."

Dan rolled his eyes, and so did Ryan. 

Shane and Arin made eye contact, and they both grinned. 

Okay.

So this was going to be more fun than he'd thought it would be. 

Good to know.

* * *

Dan and Ryan bonded over sports talk, because of course they did. They rooted for different teams, what with being from two different coasts, but at some point, they made some kind of connection, and then it was just... sports talk. 

Arin tuned most of it out, because... well, he didn't care. He didn't do sports. Shane seemed to be a nice guy, as they set up various shots, but the main way he did pop culture was movies, which Arin didn't really... know. 

It was also kind of funny, being considered part of the “only sane man” brigade. Only sane men? Regardless, even if they didn’t relate on certain levels, they still got on. 

The two of them stood in a dusty room, as various levels were checked, and cameras were strapped on to various bits of themselves. It was more equipment than Arin was really used to, although he knew how to work all of it. 

True, he knew more about screen capturing (versus cameras), but… still. Technology was technology. 

He also wasn’t entirely thrilled about being on camera, but he could live with that as well. It would help promote the new game, it would help promote the Grumps channel to people who watched Buzzfeed Unsolved, it would promote Buzzfeed Unsolved to people who watched Grumps… altogether, it would be a good joint venture.

If only he could make it work a little easier. He was still anxious about… something, although he wasn’t sure what it was. Maybe just being on camera. Maybe the fact that a dusty, abandoned asylum was just fucking creepy even if you didn’t believe in ghosts.

“So have you guys played the game yet?” Ryan was fiddling with a strap on his chest harness, as Shane fiddled with his own camera. 

“Yeah,” said Dan, “although only the first board or so.”

“Board?” Ryan grinned, and it transformed his whole face from sharply handsome to endearingly goofy.

_Whoa there,_ Arin thought to himself. _Calm down._

This was not the time or the place to be thinking about his fellow ghost hunter like this. 

Although was this a case of him being a ghost hunter? Or just a ghost tag along. Was it like a ride along, with police officers?

“Is this like a ride along, with police officers?” Arin slid a thumb under the strap of his own harness, trying to get it to stop cutting into his shoulder. 

“Hm?” Ryan looked up. “What do you mean?”

“Like… are me and Dan officially Ghostbusters now, or are we going to have to do more?”

“Well, first off,” said Ryan, “we’re not Ghostbusters.” His voice was taking on a slightly lecturing tone, and it was taking effort for Arin to not roll his eyes. “See, Ghostbusters are explicitly there to get rid of ghosts. We’re here to study them, and to get proof of them on tape.”

“Also, y’know, ghosts aren’t real,” Shane pointed out.

Ryan flipped Shane the bird, and Dan cackled like a hyena. 

“Ignore the idiot,” Ryan groused.

Arin snickered in spite of himself. “Okay,” he said. “So not Ghostbusters. But are we officially ghost… hunters? Studiers? Who were those guys who wore the pith helmets and studied elephants and shit like that?”

“Anthropologists? Great white hunters?” Shane looked equally confused.

“Excuse me,” said Ryan, “but I’m not a great white _anything_.”

“I don’t wanna be a great white anything either,” Dan interjected. “It makes me think of sharks.”

“I swear to god,” Shane said, although he was grinning, “you bunch are the most nitpicky individuals I’ve ever known, in all my life.”

“All those many years,” Dan deadpanned. “You’re practically dust in the wind.”

“You’ve just got a chip on your shoulder because you’re old,” Arin interjected, more to be a jerk than because he particularly believed it.

Dan blew a raspberry at him, and Arin raised an eyebrow. He’d put up with sass on camera, since that was part of the dynamic that they showed, but… well.

Well.

Dan knew what sass on camera resulted in. 

Dan blushed, but he was grinning a bit as well. 

“So,” said Ryan, his voice bright, “you guys ready to be scared?”

“If they are, we’ll need to take them somewhere else,” Shane said, in a bored tone of voice.

It took Arin more effort than he thought it would to not roll his eyes. Okay, so this stuff was kind of dumb. But Shane could at least _try_ to be polite, right?

Yeah, the two of them were definitely setting off some of his old instincts. 

“You’re such an asshole,” Ryan told Shane.

“It’s why you keep me around,” Shane said brightly, and he gave Ryan a grin that could best be described as “shit eating.” 

Ryan rolled his eyes, but his expression was fond. 

“So,” said Ryan, “shall we?”

“Let’s do this shit,” said Dan, with more enthusiasm than he probably felt.

* * *

The house was loud. 

Arin hadn't expected that. He'd been in abandoned houses, for one reason and another, and they'd been relatively quiet. It had just been him and his buddies, shuffling around with the occasional snicker or laugh. Admittedly, one of said buddies had almost fallen through a rotten floor one time, which had been... exciting. 

The floorboards squeaked and squealed under their feet. Various doors opened like something out of a certain class of horror movie, with lots of groaning and creaking. The wind howled outside like a lost soul. Even the cameras made a faint whirring sound, following them as they made their way through the winding halls of the old asylum. 

But everything was on the up and up - this wasn't like Arin going to explore some old abandoned house with his buddies at three in the morning as a teenager. This was him being something like an actual ghost hunter, which was a crazy thing to think about. 

Ryan and Shane were keeping up their banter, which was handy. Dan would interject now and then - he had more of the pop culture knowledge of the two of them. Arin would put in his own two cents now and then, although he didn't have much to add. At least Dan was beginning to calm down - his shoulders weren't up around his ears anymore, and he was actually laughing at a few jokes. 

That was good.

Arin didn't like it when Dan got too spooked - Dan got antsy, which was... well, it was tiring, to be sure. It wasn't even Dan's _fault_ ; Arin could be a bit of an emotional sponge, and when he was standing next to someone who was jumping at every creak of the floorboards, well... Arin ended up doing a whole lot of jumping as well, which made him irritable, which made Dan more jumpy, which resulted in a whole circle of jumpiness that left everyone just... _tired_. 

Ryan and Dan ended up squinting at something drawn on a wall - apparently it had leaked blood twenty years before? Someone had written “you’ll all burn” on it, probably a reference to a movie that Dan would insist that Arin _needed_ to see at some later date.

Shane hung back, his fingers hooked into the pockets of his pants. He looked... amused. "I'm just saying, Ryan," Shane said, "paint turns weird colors sometimes."

"It's _white paint_ , Shane," Ryan said. 

"Yeah, Shane," Dan said, looking over his shoulder.

"When I was a kid, the heating in my room broke," Arin spoke up.

"Why would you have heat in your room? You grew up in Florida." Dan was frowning.

"It gets cold in Florida sometimes," Arin pointed out.

Shane rolled his eyes, and Arin had to resist the urge to glare at him, maybe even give him a Daddy look. 

"Don't get the big guy here started," Ryan said, indicating Shane with his thumb. "He'll get on his "it doesn't count as cold unless the snot freezes on your facial hair" and nobody needs that."

"I've been that cold," Arin said. "It sucked."

"I can't really imagine it being that cold in Florida," Shane said. 

"We all live in California now, which can get pretty nippy," Shane pointed out.

"Only if you're not wearing the right kind of shirt," Dan fired back. 

Arin tried to muffle his own snicker, then gave up, throwing his head back and cackling to the cobwebby ceiling.

"Oh my god," Ryan wheezed, and he looked pleased with himself. 

Shane rolled his eyes, but he didn't seem particularly bothered by it - he made a "keep it moving" hand gesture. "If we're done with the dumb jokes?" 

"If we were done with dumb jokes, we wouldn't have a show anymore," Ryan pointed out. 

"Yeah, but you don't have to be so hard on yourself, Ryan," Shane scolded.

Arin raised an eyebrow. That was a level of snark he wasn't entirely used to. 

Shane turned to Arin, grinning. "There was a point, at least two tangents ago." 

"Right," said Arin, and he stared at the ceiling, trying to get his thoughts in order. A spider that was _too fucking big_ stared back at him, and he aimed the camera and his flashlight at it. "Lookit the size of this guy!"

"Jesus Christ, maybe he wrote it," said Dan, blanching. 

"I thought spiders who wrote stuff were all girls," said Ryan. He was staring up at the ceiling, and the long line of his profile caught the light. Arin caught himself looking, then caught Shane looking at him looking. 

Shane raised an eyebrow, and Arin averted his eyes, blushing just a bit. He wasn't even sure if he was embarrassed, although he was also picking up a bit of a hint.

Hm.

Arin slid a little closer to Dan, and he slid his hand into Dan's, just out of frame. 

"You read too much _Charlotte's Web_ ," said Dan. "Anyway, most spiders write stuff out in webs. When they write stuff out, I mean."

"Because there are obviously so many writing spiders out there," Shane interjected. 

"Oh, obviously," said Dan, and then he burst into another fit of giggles. "See, if I knew, like, _any_ Latin I'd put in a joke about how that's obviously their official name. Except I can't think of anything that'd be close."

"Arachne... Scribus?" Shane was frowning, staring up at the ceiling. 

"Since when do you know Latin?" Ryan looked impressed.

"I don't really know any Latin," Shane insisted. "That's just me cobbling stuff together."

"So Arin," Dan said, no doubt trying to head yet another tangent off at the pass, "what about the heater in your room and the white paint?"

"Oh. Right. So I had white walls, but apparently my parents got cheap fucking paint, so when it heated too much, the paint ended up _melting_ , and it was sort of... brownish."

"We don't know that the paint at the asylum was cheap paint," Dan pointed out.

"Because asylums in the seventies were known for spending so much money, weren't they?" Shane was giving Dan a Look.

"Weren't things pretty good at that point, though? Like, things didn't start out... like that." Dan was floundering a bit. 

“They weren’t exactly sunshine and roses,” Arin cut in, “but they weren’t quite so horrible.”

“Things still aren’t sunshine and roses,” Ryan cut in.

“Yeah, fair,” said Shane. “But they’re better than they were.”

There was an awkward silence, as all four of them pondered on the state of mental health in the country, and what a garbage fire that was. 

“So,” Shane said brightly, “we’re thinking the spider did the writing?”

“That writing is bigger than the spider,” Arin pointed out. “How would that work?”

“What, you mean you’ve never dumped yourself in ink, then threw yourself against a wall repeatedly?” Dan’s voice was completely deadpan.

“Dan,” Arin said in a stage whisper, “don’t blow my Sunday evening plans!”

Of course, there was then a whole discussion about _Malcolm in the Middle_ and the fact that Brian Cranston had no shame. The conversation took them through most of the asylum - Shane and Ryan had a whole discussion about if they’d be willing to get naked and dump paint on themselves.

“We did do the ice bucket challenge,” Arin said. “When it was a thing.”

“We weren’t popular enough for people to want to see us dump water on our heads back then,” said Ryan. “Which I guess was a blessing, kinda.”

“Only Ross got sick,” Arin said, “which was a surprise.”

“It was fuckin’ _cold_ ,” said Dan, and he shivered theatrically. 

“Didn’t all of that end up bringing about a whole bunch of research for ALS?” Ryan had put his hands in his pockets, and was ambling along the corridor. The floor creaked.

“Yeah, it did,” said Shane. “So something good came out of all of that.”

“Speaking of bringing about a whole bunch of research,” said Ryan, “I’ve got the spirit box out, if you guys are ready for it?”

“I’m never ready for it,” Shane said, in a resigned tone of voice.

“That may be true, but we’re gonna do it regardless,” said Ryan cheerfully.

“You could probably use it for a dubstep backbeat,” Dan said, in a thoughtful tone of voice.

“Is Ninja Sex Party ever going to go into dubstep?” Shane looked skeptical.

“Who knows what the future will hold,” said Dan. 

“We could do a crossover,” Ryan said, and now he looked excited. “Something about fucking ghosts or something.”

“I am always up for ghost fucking,” Dan said, in a voice that was a bit too cheerful. 

“You’re up for any kind of fucking,” Ryan fired back. 

“Not _any_ kind of fucking,” Dan protested.

“You’re both pretty,” Shane said absently, and that startled a laugh out of the other three.

“Why thank you,” said Dan, and he primped theatrically. 

Ryan grinned, and Arin snickered. 

“So,” Ryan said, “you guys ready to get your minds blown?”

“I think you mean our eardrums,” Shane said in a resigned tone of voice.

“Why do you hate that thing so much?” Arin stuffed his hands in his pockets, looking around. They were in one of the old dormitories now - there were the skeletons of old bunk beds lurking by the walls.

It was all a lot more eerie than it had a right to be, all things considered. Arin tried to imagine being a kid and staying in a big, echoing place like this. He’d seen a few pictures of the place before it had been abandoned, and even bustling with people it had felt faintly… uncomfortable. Impersonal. 

A lump was forming in his throat, which was unexpected. 

“It’s loud, and it doesn’t do anything,” said Shane, making a face. “It’s just… a bunch of hooey.”

“Hooey,” Ryan echoed, and he snickered. “You sound like a schoolteacher from, like, _Little House on the Prairie_.”

Dan snorted as well, his hands going to his hair, fiddling with his ponytail. It was already starting to escape the hair tie - soon he was going to have to retie it. 

Arin wanted to do it - Dan always got weird about his hair being touched when he hadn’t washed it recently, but Arin couldn’t help it. At least Dan was getting better about washing his hair more than once a month. 

The spirit box turned on, and they all jumped - the damn thing was just so _loud_ , they hadn’t been kidding. It wasn’t saying anything of value, although all four of them got their names in, waited to hear them back. 

Ryan nearly jumped out of his skin when the spirit box (possibly) said his name, but honestly, it had sounded more like an ad for the local radio station. But what did Arin know? He wasn’t the ghost hunter around here, they were. He took a mental step back, as the two of them snarked back and forth, Dan occasionally joining in for flavor. He did let out a snicker now and then, but for the most part, it was the Ryan and Shane show.

Arin wasn’t complaining - the Ghoul Boys would probably be pretty quiet when they were on the Grump couch. Bantering over video games was a skill, after all. 

* * *

There was a pause in the action (such as it was), and Ryan and Shane were quietly discussing something or other. Arin wasn’t paying too close attention. 

Arin sidled over to Dan, wrapping an arm around Dan’s waist and leaning his head on Dan’s shoulder. “How are you doing, buddy?”

“I’m doin’ okay,” said Dan. “That spider was fuckin’ _huge_.”

“It really was,” Arin agreed. “But think of all the bugs it’s eating.” 

“Bugs being eaten is a good thing,” Dan agreed. “I heard about how you should look at a plague of frogs as a good thing, since they eat the bugs.”

“Are plagues of frogs a thing that you’ve been dealing with more often or something?” Arin’s tone was skeptical.

“I mean,” Dan said, “I can’t help but think about it, y’know. What with Passover and whatnot.”

“Right,” said Arin, although he was a little lost.

"You know. The ten plagues?" Dan looked at Arin sidelong, and he was fiddling with his fingers.

Wait a minute.

"How you feeling, buddy?" Arin slid a hand into Dan's, squeezing it. Then he brought it up to his lips, kissing the back of it. 

Dan flushed, and his eyes darted towards Ryan and Shane, who were still leaning close together, talking quietly. TJ was off, fiddling with his own camera.

"Don't worry about them," Arin said. "C'mon. We're in California. Are you worried about them judging us?" 

"I mean, no," Dan admitted, and he sighed, his forehead against Arin's. He rubbed their noses together, and he grinned, his expression goofy. "Sorry, it's dumb for me to get so spooked by something so dumb...."

Arin shrugged. "I'm sure there are situations that'd leave me equally spooked," he told Dan. 

"Yeah? Like what?" 

"... that, I'm not sure of," said Arin, and he laughed, self conscious in spite of himself.

Dan leaned forward, and he pressed a quick kiss to Arin's mouth, then went to go talk to Ryan and Shane about who knew what. 

Arin watched after him, then caught TJ's eye and flushed, looking at his feet. Welp. At least there wasn't much use in denying the two of them were an item now, was there? But hey, it was California. It wasn't just California, it was LA. Who in LA didn't know someone queer, or someone polyamorous? He glanced back up at TJ, and TJ was going back to fiddling with his camera. 

So it was no big deal. 

Arin just had to _relax_. He went to go stand by Ryan, Dan, and Shane, to hear what they were talking about. 

It was a sports argument. So Arin didn't really have much to contribute. He made eye contact with Shane, and Shane rolled his eyes. He was looking at Ryan with an expression that could best be described as "fond," and Arin caught the beginning of a thought. 

Hm.

Arin moved closer to Shane, tilting his head back just a bit, so he could speak in Shane's ear. "It's all Greek to me," he told Shane.

"Yeah, I'm glad he's got someone to talk sports with," said Shane. "It's distracting him a bit from being so scared."

"And that's a good thing, right?" Arin put his hands in his pockets, shifting from foot to foot. 

"It is and it isn't," said Shane. "A good episode usually goes on when he's about to shit his pants in terror, but at the same time, _dealing_ with him when he's about to shit his pants in terror can be kind of exhausting."

"Right," said Arin. "That makes sense." 

"You guys don't really do horror games that much, do you?" Shane settled himself back onto his heels, his arms crossed across his chest. He was looking at Arin with a thoughtful expression that Arin couldn't entirely read. 

"Not really, no," said Arin. "Although our fans like to see us really scared."

"Well, yes, that's the nature of fans, from what I've seen," said Shane, and he smiled. There was a bit of a tightness around the smile. "They like to see us terrified or generally just feeling a lot of feelings at the same time."

"In fairness," said Arin, "you guys are pretty funny when you're scared."

"I don't think you've ever actually _seen_ me scared," Shane countered.

"Are you afraid of anything?" 

"I mean, the standard stuff," Shane said. He still kept glancing over at Ryan and Dan, who were arguing about something to do with football. "Being stabbed by a heroin needle. Choking on an avocado pit."

"I hate to tell you this, big guy," Arin paused for a moment - the endearment just popped out of his mouth, without him thinking, "but those aren't exactly normal fears."

"You do have to agree that they're things to be afraid of though, don't you?" Shane was looking at Arin now.

"Well, yes," said Arin. "Those are _scary_ things, but not, like... phobia things."

"Well, what's one of your phobias, then?" 

"Okay, sorted out the camera thing," said TJ from off to the side. 

Arin looked over at TJ, then glanced over at Dan, who had a hand over his mouth, as if he was trying not to giggle. 

"Maybe a ghost fucked with it," said Ryan, and he let off a nervous giggle.

"A ghost didn't fuck with the camera," Shane said in a long suffering noise.

"But how do you _know_?" Dan demanded. 

Arin shot Dan a Look, but it was too dim for Dan to see it. Or maybe Dan was in the mood to brat a bit. Not that Arin could blame him. 

Something about Shane and Ryan was setting off his own brat alarm ,albeit from a different angle. He almost wanted to - well. They weren't in that kind of relationship. It wasn't his place to punish them, regardless of how badly they needed it.

... okay, wow, that wasn't the normal way for Arin's thoughts to go. He rubbed his eyes, a headache beginning to form around his temples. He was tired, and his feet were beginning to hurt. No wonder Ryan was in such good shape, if he was always traipsing around haunted places like this.

"So," Shane said, and he rubbed his hands together. In the greeny glow of the camera, he looked positively _eerie_ , "we're going to do the thing where we sit in an isolated place, by ourselves, for five minutes."

"What, five minutes? I thought it was _three_ minutes," said Ryan, and there was more than a hint of whine in his voice. 

"We wanna put on a good show for the Grumps, don't we?" Shane slapped Ryan on the back, and Ryan shot him a sour look. "C'mon. We've got _new fans_ to impress."

"We're not new fans," Dan pointed out. "We're already fans. We've been fans, for a while." He was closer to Arin now, his hip against Arin's. 

"I meant the people who are gonna be watching the show because you guys are on it, not you guys," Shane said. "C'mon, Ry-guy. Don't tell me you're scared?"

"I'm fuckin' terrified," Ryan told him. "What if something tries to kill me?!"

"Nothing is going to try to kill you," Shane told Ryan, and he sounded tired. He put a hand on Ryan's shoulder, squeezing it, and Arin eyed that hand. 

One of Ryan's hands came up for a second, squeezing Shane's hand, and Arin bit back his triumphant grin. 

_I fuckin' knew it!_

"Me and Dan can do it too," Arin added. 

"We can?" Dan looked at Arin, his eyes wide.

"Oh, totally," said Arin. 

"I mean," Dan said, and he was twisting his fingers together, the finger bones cracking like a bag full walnuts being rattled, "if you really think so...."

"It'll give you a chance to do some music planning," Arin said, in what he hoped was a cheery tone of voice. "C'mon. Think of how much meditation you can do with for five minutes in a quiet, dark room by yourself!"

"Until a ghost tries to strangle me," Dan said, his tone gloomy.

"This ghost doesn't strangle," Ryan put in, ever helpful.

"No? What does it do?" They were slowly making their way towards what used to be the hydrotherapy room. They'd glanced into it, on their way towards the dormitories, and it had given Arin the heebie jeebies. All of those giant tubs, like the vats they used to make wine in.

"Stabs," Ryan said, and there was a mix of terror and glee in his tone.

It took effort for Arin to not roll his eyes.

"Wait a minute," said Dan, and he was frowning. "How does it stab? Does it have, like, a little ghost knife or something?"

"A ghost knife from a ghost Swiss army knife," Shane supplied.

"How much harm would a Swiss army knife even do," Dan added. "Those knives are, like, the size of my pinkie finger."

"Maybe not _your_ pinkie finger," Arin teased. "You've got a lot of finger."

"All the better to -" Dan began, but was interrupted by Ryan.

"We're here!" 

They were, indeed, there. The room was huge and echoing, tiled in the kind of white institutional tile that Arin associated with going to the hospital himself. Everything was coated in a fine layer of dust, and Arin's shoulders were trying not to go up around his ears. He didn't believe in ghosts - not really - but there was still something... well creepy about all of this.

_Imagine being forced to sit in one of those giant tubs, in freezing water, until some doctor said you could come out._ Arin had done his research, before he'd come here - he had wanted to appear knowledgeable, after all. Anyway, Suzy was always interested in reading up on that kind of stuff. She'd been interested in coming along, although there'd been a scheduling conflict.

Maybe next time. 

"I... this place is eerie," said Dan, and he looked anxious, biting his lip.

"Yeah," Shane agreed, and his voice was quiet. "Some of these places are just kinda... like that." 

"It was... a lot of not good stuff happened here," Arin said, and he was surprised at the sound of his own voice. 

"Yeah?" Dan glanced over to Arin, and he was fiddling with his ponytail again. 

“You want me to do your hair again?” Arin indicated Dan’s ponytail. 

“Hm? Oh, yeah, thanks,” said Dan, and he grinned at all the assembled people, faintly embarrassed but also clearly somewhat pleased. “Sorry, Arin is just kinda better at it.”

“I can honestly say I’ve never had that much hair,” said Shane. “I can’t imagine how difficult it’d be to just… _deal_ with it.”

“It’s honestly not that bad,” said Dan, although he sighed when Arin slid the hair tie off. His hair, being his hair, floofed out like an angry cat. 

“It sure looks like you put more effort into yours than I do with mine,” said Shane, and he laughed, looking faintly nervous. 

Arin shrugged, gathering Dan’s hair into a ponytail with both hands, holding the hair tie between his teeth. It was faintly unpleasant, honestly - Dan needed to wash his hair soon - but he wasn’t going to complain too hard. It was nice that Dan trusted him enough to let him do this in the first place. 

“Me and Arin did a thing a while ago,” Dan added, and he was relaxing, just a bit, the way he always did when his hair was being played with. “They had a stylist there who apparently had a lot of experience with hair like mine, so she actually managed to do my hair up in this bun and it just… stayed in it.”

“Did it?” Shane looked faintly impressed.

“I felt air on the back of my neck for the first time in who even knew how long - ow, Arin, not so tight.”

“Sorry about that, babe,” said Arin, and he loosened his hold, just a bit. 

“It’s fine,” said Dan, and he leaned into it, just a bit. 

Arin was blushing, he realized. At least it was too dark for anyone to really notice, right?

“You don’t ever do anything with _my_ hair,” Ryan said to Shane, his tone teasing.

“Grow enough hair that I can do something with it, and I would be absolutely delighted to make it pretty for you,” Shane told Ryan.

“I’m growing it out,” Ryan pointed out. “Look how much hair I’ve got now!”

“I feel like there’s a whole bunch of responses I can give to that, all of them bad ones,” said Shane, and he looked like he was trying not to burst out laughing now. 

Dan snorted, and Arin finished tying his hair back. 

“There you go,” Arin told Dan. “All tied up.” 

“Thanks, big cat,” said Dan, his hand going back to feel his ponytail. He always did that - Arin didn’t get it, but then again, he always did his own hair. 

"Tied up, eh?" Ryan was wearing an exaggerated leer, and Arin snorted. 

"Really? Is that an appropriate joke to make right now, Ryan?" Arin had slipped into his Daddy voice, before he had a chance to think about it. Which was probably a bad thing, but... well, he couldn't exactly put that genie back in the bottle, could he?

And Ryan... Ryan blushed, and he mumbled something, but then TJ was making a vague hand gesture. 

"You guys ready?" TJ was fiddling with the camera again, but he seemed to be ready to set up.

"I'm ready," said Dan, and he stretched, his back arching. He seemed to have calmed down, at least. 

"I am too," said Arin. 

Shane didn't say anything, but he gave a thumbs up. 

"I'm good," said Ryan. "Let's do this shit."

* * *

The rest of the evening went, more or less, the way you'd expect it to. 

Ryan insisted up, down, and sideways that something had spoken his name when he was standing by himself, but the mics hadn't picked up on anything. Shane had made some snarky comments. Dan just kinda... stood there quietly. Arin had rocked on the balls of his feet, the creepiness slowly but surely replaced with plain ol' boredom. 

Sure, standing in an empty, dark, dusty room was kind of creepy - especially when you thought of the horrors that had happened in that room - but it was still just standing in a dark, empty room. By the time Arin was allowed out, he was just twitchy with inactivity. 

The rest of the episode was a sitch to film, and they were done before Arin really had time to catch up. Or maybe he was just getting better at bantering. 

Dan, for his part, seemed to be asleep on his feet, but half the time that seemed to be Dan's default state anyway. Arin could sympathize. He didn't run himself half as ragged as Dan did, and he still ended up exhausted. 

The two of them stood by the car, their fingers laced together, forehead to forehead. It was more than a little obnoxiously romantic, but meh. Who was anyone going to tell? Shane had an arm draped over Ryan's shoulders anyway, so it wasn't as if Dan and Arin were the only ones doing it. 

"How you holdin' up, buddy?" Arin's voice was gentle, and his fingers were hooked into the belt loops of Dan's jeans. It was a truly ungodly hour, and Arin was looking forward to going home. He'd take these horrible jeans off, take a shower to wash the scent of must and dust off of himself, slide into bed next to Suzy. At least he didn't have to go into work tomorrow, which helped. 

"I'm good," Dan said, and he yawned, so wide that his jaw cracked. "Thanks for being so understanding, Daddy." The last word came out very quietly, but Arin flushed in spite of himself. 

"Of course," Arin said, and he cleared his throat. "We about ready to go?"

"Almost," said Shane, and he yawned, his eyes half shut. He looked like a zombie. 

"You gonna be okay there, buddy?" And Arin's Daddy voice was coming out again. For fuck sake. He was turning into every obnoxious stereotype about Daddy doms. Although he wasn't going to say "cummies" without irony, although the idea of it was still pretty fucking hilarious. 

Just what _was_ it about Ryan and Shane that was setting off those nebulous instincts of his? They were, for all intents and purposes, a pair of fully functional adults. And yet. Arin wanted to spank them. He wanted to do more than spank them, which was a problem, because that wasn't the kind of dynamic you just... sprung on a person. Let alone a person that you weren't already in some kind of relationship with. 

Maybe Arin was just tired. Tired, and experiencing some kind of kink blue balls - he and Dan had both been too busy to really do much in the way of their dynamic, leaving Arin more than a little bit twitchy. 

"Yeah," Shane said, although he was giving Arin a thoughtful look, his eyebrows up, his lower lip between his teeth. "Yeah, I'll be okay." 

"You gonna go home and get some sleep?" Arin didn't seem to be able to find the off button, which was very much a _problem_. The last time he'd been like this, it had been with Ross, and Ross had just laughed at him, because... well. It was pretty funny, when you got down to it. 

"I'm going to go home, brush my teeth, shower, the whole shebang," Shane said, and he put one of his giant hands on Arin's shoulder. "I promise."

"Good b - good plan," said Arin, stopping himself before he could say anything else, because, well. You didn't just say "good boy" to some guy who you mainly had a working relationship with. Although Shane was _still_ giving him a thoughtful look, and Ryan's forehead was pressed into Shane's shoulder. He looked dead on his feet. 

"This one is who you should worry about," Shane said, and he clapped Ryan on the shoulder.

"Mmm?" Ryan came back to himself, although he still looked like a zombie. 

"I'm sure Ryan can take care of himself," Arin said firmly, although now he was aware of Dan's fingers tangled in his belt loop. 

"He might be able to," said Shane, his voice cheery, "but that doesn't mean he's actually _going_ to!" He was grinning as he said it, but there was some other layer there that Arin was missing. 

Maybe Arin was just stupid from all of the dust he'd been inhaling. Who even knew what sort of junk he'd been breathing in, as they wandered through the old asylum. 

"You're such a shit, Shane," Ryan said, and then he yawned again, his jaw popping.

"Is that any way to talk to your friend?" Arin's voice was full of the harmonics of Daddy Voice, and Arin's heart was in his throat. How the fuck had he just _said_ that. He was about to say something to negate it - maybe tease Dan about something, or make some kind of joke - and then Ryan cleared his throat. 

"Sorry, Shane," he said, and he sounded downright meek. There wasn't any sign of the brat. It was just Ryan, standing there and looking sheepish.

"You should come around more often," Shane said, giving Arin a steady look. "I can't usually get him to apologize without the equivalent of a crowbar." 

“How would you use a crowbar to make someone apologize?” Dan sounded confused. 

“I mean,” said Ryan, and he put on a fake tough guy accent, “we’ve got _ways_ of making you apologize.” 

That startled a laugh out of Arin, and he threw his head back, cackling. 

“You’re such a weirdo,” Shane said, his tone affectionate.

“I learned from the best, big guy,” Ryan countered, then; “could, uh… would you maybe want to see us before we do the LP? Just to, y’know, plan things over?” 

“Sure,” said Arin, although he was a little bit lost. It was an LP. What was there to talk about?

Thanks” said Ryan, and then he paused. “Can I hug you?”

“Sure,” said Arin, opening his arms. “Go for it!”

Who was he to turn down a hug from someone who he was friends with?

Ryan gave him a hug, and it was a tight hug. It helped that Ryan was so damn muscular - he squeezed Arin hard enough that Arin went a little breathless. 

Shane gave a little salute, and he grinned. “See you guys in a few days,” he said, getting into one car.

“Looking forward to it,” Dan called after him. 

* * *

Arin and Dan stopped at a nearby twenty four hour diner. Arin felt like he was going to fall asleep at the wheel. A milkshake or something similar would help, right?

Dan was munching on chicken strips, wearing a slightly dazed expression. “I think that Ryan and Shane liked you,” he said, after they’d both sat there, nibbling, for a few minutes.

“Well, yeah. It’s one reason they suggested the collaboration in the first place,” said Arin. “Why wouldn’t they like me?” 

“No, not like that,” said Dan, and he cleared his throat, looking embarrassed. “Like… liked you.”

“Use your words,” Arin said, in his best Daddy voice.

Dan groaned, covering his face with both hands. They were greasy - he’d have to wash his hands _and_ his face when he got home. “You were being all… commanding and shit. It was hot.”

“You think they’d be interested?” Arin took a slurp of his milkshake, and the sweetness settled on his tongue. His toes curled in his shoes, and he sighed. He was looking forward to getting out of all of the “real” clothing that he’d been wandering around in. 

“Oh yeah,” Dan said fervently. 

“Would _you_ be okay with that?” Arin looked at Dan sidelong.

Dan looked down at his plate, fiddling with a piece of chicken, tearing it into little pieces. “I’ve, uh… I’d be okay with it, in theory? I’m not sure what I’d like, though. Exactly.”

“Right,” said Arin, and he took another slurp. “What would you _not_ be okay with?”

“I don’t think I’d want to watch you having sex with them,” said Dan. “If that’s okay?”

“‘Course it’s okay,” said Arin. “Why wouldn’t it be?”

Dan shrugged. “This stuff is always complicated,” he said, which was true. 

“It’s okay,” Arin assured him, and he reached a hand out, squeezing Dan’s hand. “I promise. Okay?”

“... okay,” said Dan, and he sighed. “I think that they were bratting at you, towards the end of the… everything.”

“You think?” Arin stole one of Dan’s fries, dipping it into his milkshake. He took a bite, and he closed his eyes, relishing the mix of sweet and salt. 

“Oh yeah,” said Dan, and he grinned. “I know bratting when I see it.”

“You recognize your own, huh?” Arin waggled his eyebrows.

Dan snorted. “When was the last time I bratted?” 

“Two nights ago, when I spanked you with my belt,” Arin said promptly.

“That was you being in a bad mood,” Dan protested.

“I _explicitly_ told you I was in a bad mood and that if you didn’t want me to act on it you had to say something, and then you provoked me and came all over my lap while I was spanking you.”

Dan’s cheeks were bright red, but he grinned a bit in spite of himself. “I guess I can’t argue with that, huh?”

“Nope,” Arin said, his tone serene. “So you’ll just have to accept it.”

Dan stuck his tongue out at Arin. 

Arin raised an eyebrow. 

Dan blushed, looking down. “It might be nice to watch either of ‘em get spanked, though,” he said. “Or both of them.”

“You think they’d be into it?” That was unexpected. Although it might have been the weird vibe that Arin had been getting from them. 

“Oh, totally,” said Dan. “I’d say it’s a thing, one hundred percent.”

“And you’d be okay with me spanking them?” 

“I’d really like that,” said Dan. “If I could watch, I mean.”

“You sure you don’t want to watch just because you know it won’t be _your_ ass being blistered?” Arin’s tone was teasing.

“Well, okay, yes, that’s part of it,” Dan admitted. “But… y’know.”

“I know?” 

“They’re good looking guys,” Dan said, “and they could stand to be taken down a peg or two.”

“You sound like such a jerk when you say that,” said Arin. “Or maybe a Disney villain.” 

“I would make a _great_ Disney villain, and you know it,” Dan said. 

“You’d need to grow a real mustache,” Arin countered. 

“Versus that thing you’ve got growing on your face?” Dan indicated Arin’s own mustache.

“You sure you wanna go down that road, buddy?” Arin’s Daddy voice was back on, and in force.

“We were going down it anyway,” Dan said, in a voice that was remarkably placid. “What else could I expect?” 

“Y’know, you’d give those two a run for their money when it comes to brattiness,” Arin said in a resigned tone of voice. 

“Maybe,” said Dan, “but you’re still _my_ Daddy.” 

“Nothing will stop that,” Arin promised.

"Okay, good," said Dan, with some finality. 

"You're a possessive little monster, aren't you?" Arin's tone was affectionate, but Dan still flushed. 

"Sorry," Dan mumbled, looking embarrassed. "I just, uh... I worry."

"What do you worry about?" Arin took another slurp of his milkshake. 

Well," said Dan, and he cleared his throat, leaning back into his seat, "for one thing, they're both younger than me."

"So?" Arin frowned, trying to make the connection.

"I'm just saying," Dan said. "They're younger than me, they're better looking -"

"That's not true," Arin interrupted. 

"What?" Dan looked faintly nonplussed.

"They're not better looking than you," Arin insisted. "I mean, they look different than you, but that doesn't mean they look _better_."

"Ryan is so... well, built, and Shane is so _tall_ ," Dan said. 

"Oh my god, are you having height anxiety?" It burst out of Arin's mouth before he had a chance to think. 

Dan wrinkled his nose. "Do I make fun of _you_ for your various appearance based anxieties?" Dan's tone was sour.

"No, no, I'm sorry," Arin said, and he leaned in, speaking quietly. "I'm being a bad Daddy. I'm sorry."

Dan's expression softened. 

"It's okay," he said. "I'm sorry, I'm... I'm being dumb." He rubbed the back of his neck, and he sighed. "I'm sorry, I get kind of dumb when I'm in headspace."

"It's fine," Arin said. "As long as we're all reasonable adults when we need to be, that's what's important, right?" 

"Right," said Dan, and he gave a bit of a hollow laugh. "That easy."

"You managed it before I came along," Arin pointed out.

"Well, okay, yes, but... that was different," Dan said, and he looked embarrassed.

"How was it different?" Arin leaned back himself. He was glad he'd thought to take a lactose pill before they'd come here. 

"Because now I know it's, like, an option that I have," said Dan. "Sometimes I can be an immature fucknugget, and that's just... okay."

"Right," said Arin. "Although I usually make you regret being a fucknugget."

"Well, yes," said Dan. "But still. It used to not even be an option. And now it's an option."

"That's fair," said Arin. "Although in fairness being an immature fucknugget is _always_ an option. In theory, at least."

"Everything is always an option," said Dan. "I could pull some kind of ridiculous fuckery and jump through the window with guns blazing, but I'm not."

"I feel like you need a gun for it to be guns blazing," said Arin. "Unless you've got a gun that you haven't told me about."

"No, no, I don't have a gun," said Dan. "I'd tell you if I had a gun."

"Okay, good," said Arin. "We'd have to have a whole talk about that."

"Arin, I don't even keep it from you when I buy a new microphone. How would I be able to hide the fact that I bought a _gun_?" Dan looked faintly nonplussed.

"I mean, I can't argue with that," said Arin, and he grinned, sheepish. "Sorry."

"It's fine," said Dan, and he grinned back. "What do you think Shane and Ryan want to talk about?"

"I have no idea," said Arin, "but I guess we'll find out, huh?"

"Right." 

* * *

And then Ryan and Shane were sitting in Arin's living room. 

There had to have been some time passing between it - stuff had to have _happened_ , because that was how it worked, right? Arin distinctly remembered more than a few awkward conversations, one equally awkward dinner not-a-date (exactly?), so time had to have passed, right?

But here were Shane and Ryan, sitting on Arin's couch, with Dan sitting next to him, looking awkward.

"So, uh, can I ask an awkward question?" Ryan cleared his throat, and he was blushing.

"As if you could ask any other kind," Shane teased.

Arin resisted the urge to give Shane a Look. 

"Shut up, big guy," Ryan said, without rancor, then he turned to Arin. "So. Um. Awkward question."

"Right," said Arin. "Come at me."

Ryan snorted. "Are you guys, uh... are you in a dynamic?" He was rubbing his hands together, shifting in his seat.

"What do you mean by "dynamic," exactly?" Arin licked his lips, and tried to keep his face from turning too red. 

"You know. Like... a kink thing. Or a... I don't know, what's a non-sexual word for kink?" Ryan looked over at Shane, who was doing his best to resemble a mannequin, with a blank face that stared straight ahead. 

"I mean," Arin began. 

"We are," said Dan. "I mean, uh...," he paused, and he was blushing as well.

"And your wife is okay with it?" Ryan looked faintly disbelieving. 

"I mean, I'm okay with her girlfriend," Arin said. 

"Oh," said Ryan, then; "how do you, like... get there?"

"It's kind of a long story," Dan butted in. "But I am kinda curious - why are _you_ so interested?"

"Um," said Shane, and it was his turn. "We've been, uh... we've been thinking about it. But we don't know anyone in the actual real world who's interested in it, and also you know, minor YouTube celebrities, which brings about some... problems."

"Right," said Arin, beginning to get the picture.

"Would you be willing to... to help?" Ryan's voice was nervous, but he was biting his lip, shifting in his seat.

"Help?"

"Just to, y'know, get a feel for it?" Shane was rubbing his hands together. "I've got no experience with it, just an interest."

"So, what are you asking us for?" Dan sounded nervous, but there was an undercurrent of... something under it. Excitement? Hope? 

Shane outlined it, just a bit. 

Ryan looked like he wanted the sofa to open up and eat him, while Shane turned redder and redder. 

"That's doable," said Arin, when it was all done. "If you really want it, I mean."

"It's not too weird?" Ryan was holding on to himself, his arms across his middle. 

Arin was a bit surprised with himself - he wanted to reach out and hug Ryan, although he had a feeling Dan might not have been perfectly okay with that right now. 

"Nah," said Arin. "I mean, it's a little weird, but all the fun things in life are, aren't they?" 

That surprised a laugh out of Shane, and he grinned at Arin. "Something like that," he agreed. 

“But you’d be okay… with what we talked about?” Ryan’s eyes were darting from Arin to Dan, anxious as ever. 

Arin glanced over at Dan, who looked calm. “You okay with it, buddy?”

Dan grinned, and he looked genuinely happy. “Oh yeah,” he said. “It’ll be nice to see someone else get punished.”

“How do you know that you won’t be punished?” Shane crossed his arms over his chest, looking petulant. Arin wanted to pinch his cheek. 

“Because I’m a good boy,” Dan said promptly. 

“Just keep telling yourself that,” Shane said.

“Both of you,” Arin warned, and there was a delight in that. 

Dan’s mouth slid shut, but Shane looked at Arin. “I don’t think I’m actually… afraid of being punished,” he said slowly. 

“I’m not either,” Ryan chirped up. 

“Well,” said Arin, and he rubbed his hands together. He was wearing an expression that even he could tell was devious. “ _Well_.”

Shane and Ryan made eye contact, and they both blushed, licking their lips. 

This was certainly going to go someplace fun, wasn’t it?

* * * 

Ryan and Shane stood in Arin’s bedroom, and they had their pants down. 

They were both being very quiet, which was a surprise, after all the bratting that they’d done. Then again, they tended to get quiet when shit got serious. 

Dan sat on the side, watching with rapt eyes.

Ryan’s boxers were plain black, and Shane’s were printed with little fruit loops. 

“So do you know why I’m punishing you?” Arin kept his voice calm, almost sweet. 

Ryan seemed to be accepting his fate, his hands loose at his sides, his eyes straight ahead. 

“Because I was bad,” Ryan said, his voice quiet.

“Because you’re a slap happy tyrant,” Shane suggested.

“Slap happy doesn’t mean happy to slap,” Dan said, form his spot on the chair. 

“No commentary from the peanut gallery,” said Arin, “or I’ll put you here too.”

“You’ve only got two hands,” said Shane. “How could you spank him and us at the same time?”

“Bend over the bed, right now,” Arin said, and he was even using his angry voice.

“Which one of us?” Shane’s voice was cheeky.

“You, Shane,” said Arin. 

“But Ryan has been a brat too,” Shane whined.

“Ryan’s punishment isn’t your problem,” said Arin. “in fact, I think you’re going to get special treatment.”

“I always liked special treatment,” Shane snarked, although there was something nervous in the back of his voice.

“That’s good,” Arin said, his own voice silky, and then he was sitting on the bed. He grabbed Shane, pulling Shane over his lap, and Shane went, letting himself be draped over Arin’s thighs. “Ryan,” Arin said, “can you be a good boy and stay standing with your hands behind your head?”

“Yes, sir,” said Ryan, and his voice was quiet. 

“Good boy,” Arin said in a soothing tone, and then he was squeezing Shane’s ass, just hard enough for it to be felt. “You ready?” 

“How bad can it be?” Shane’s tone was glib, but he was shaking under Arin’s hand.

When Arin drew his hand back and landed the first hit, Shane made a surprised noise, squirming. “You’re not going anywhere,” Arin said, resting his other elbow on Shane’s lower back, then beginning to rain the hits down. 

Shane made indignant noises, but didn’t squirm too much otherwise. He just… took it, hit after hit on his ass, which was already warming up under Arin’s hand. His ass jiggled, although there wasn’t much of it, but Arin watched anyway. He was used to flatbutts at this poitn. 

But Shane didn’t break. He just kept taking the pain, offering the occasional sassy remark. It was, in all honesty, quite frustrating, and after almost fifteen minutes straight of Arin spanking him, Shane was still holding strong, and Arin’s hand was beginning to hurt. 

Hm. 

“I’m going to have to bring out the big guns,” Arin told Shane. 

“You’re hitting me with a gun now?” Shane shifted under Arin’s arm, but Arin ignored him. 

“Dan,” Arin said, “get me the hairbrush.”

“Which one?” Dan was playing dumb, and Arin _knew_ that Dan was playing dumb. Maybe Dan knew that he knew that Dan knew… but that was getting a bit circular, and they didn’t need that. 

“You know the one, Dan,” Arin scolded. “Be a good boy, or you’ll be next.”

“I thought Ryan was next,” Shane said from his spot on the bed. 

“I’d only need to give Dan a bit of a spanking,” Arin said sharply. “He’s less of a brat than you two.”

“How am I a brat?” Ryan’s voice was plaintive.

“You’ve been very good with your punishment so far,” Arin said, “but you were still being a brat.”

“How is _he_ being punished?” Shane was indignant.

Arin ignored him, taking the hairbrush that Dan handed him, then rubbing the back of it against Shane’s ass. “You ready, big guy?” 

Shane gave a little nod, and Arin frowned, grabbing Shane by the hair.

“Let’s try that again,” said Arin. “Are you ready, big guy?”

“Yeah, I’m ready,” said Shane.

“Y’know, just for that,” said Arin, “I’m gonna go a little harder.” He grabbed the waistband of Shane’s boxers, yanking them down, and then he slapped Shane’s ass with his bare hand again. He hit it hard enough that the pink skin turned white. A perfect handprint. 

“Ow!” Shane was fully squirming now, and his voice was rough. 

“You don’t like that as much, huh?” More slaps across Shane’s bare ass, and they were delightfully loud cracks that made Ryan wince. 

“Could be worse,” Shane said. 

“Could be,” Arin agreed, and then he was tapping the back of Shane’s thigh with the hairbrush, and bringing it down.

Shane _howled_ , as Arin began to spank him with the brush in earnest. It was a good howl too, a long, ululating wail that seemed to be getting louder and softer, then louder again with each hit. 

By the time Arin had finished the spanking, Shane had gone quiet. Shane’s ass was covered in bruises - the kinds of bruises that would turn purple and green soon. 

“Do you know why I spanked you like that?” Arin kept his voice as kind as he could. His hand was a little bit sore. 

“Because I was bad,” Shane said. He seemed to have descended into headspace. 

“Very good,” said Arin. “I need you to be a good boy for me now, and stand up with your hands behind your head like Ryan is. Can you be a good boy and do that?”

“Yes, sir,” said Shane, standing up on shaking legs and staring straight ahead, his hands behind his head. 

“Good boy,” said Arin, and then he turned to Ryan, who was _also_ shaking. “So, you ready?” 

“Ready,” said Ryan. “Sir.”

“Such a good boy,” said Arin, as Ryan lay across his lap, his knees digging into Arin’s thigh. 

Ryan’s ass was firm, and it was hard on Arin’s hand with each hit. Ryan made the most delicious yelping noises when Arin landed hits on him. When Arin’s hand was starting to get sore, he ran it over Ryan’s ass, which was warm through the boxers. 

“Sir?” Ryan’s voice was very quiet.

“Yeah?” Arin leaned in to hear.

“... can you use the hairbrush, please?” Ryan was flushing, and he was staring fixedly at the bed. 

“You sure?” Arin squeezed Ryan’s ass through Ryan’s thin boxers.

“Yeah,” Ryan said in that same small voice. “Like you did with Shane.”

“Shane got that as a special punishment for being a brat,” Arin pointed out. “You haven’t been as bratty.”

“I can try,” Ryan hazarded. 

“No,” said Arin. “You asked for it nicely, like a good boy.” He carefully drew down Ryan’s boxers, and then he spanked Ryan’s bare ass, because he could. 

Ryan was turning a lovely shade of pink, and he was squirming some more. “Please,” he mumbled.

“Well,” said Arin, “since you asked so nicely….” And then he grabbed the hairbrush, giving the first hit.

Ryan didn’t whine or grunt or shout - he went completely silent. It was honestly faintly eerie - Arin kept spanking him, but he glanced up at Shane, making eye contact. 

Shane gave a smile and a nod. “He gets like this sometimes, when he’s into it,” he said quietly. 

“If you’re sure,” Arin said. “Are you okay, Ryan?” 

Ryan gave a thumbs up, then; “please don’t stop.”

“If you say so, buddy,” Arin said, and he went back to hitting Ryan, until his own arm was hurting, and Ryan was shaking in his lap. 

Ryan was clutching the covers, but his breathing was calm, even. 

“You okay in there, champ?” Arin’s voice was sweet.

Ryan nodded. 

Arin looked up, made eye contact with Dan. Dan grinned at him, gave him a thumbs up, and Arin grinned back. 

“So,” Arin said, “what do you guys think?”

“Gimme a minute,” Shane said, and he sounded dazed. 

“Better than the haunted house,” Ryan supplied. 

“Good to know,” said Arin, rubbing some life back into his hand. “Very much good to know.”


End file.
